Birmingham Opinion Impacthttp://www.al.com/opinion/birmingham/index.ssf/
enCopyright 2015Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:09:26 UTChttp://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
Birmingham Uber supporters took to Twitter in full force to call for the city council to vote in favor of the app-based taxi service.

What are your thoughts? Do you want to see Uber in Birmingham? Let us know in the comments.
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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/07/birminghamneedsuber_responds_t.html
Wesley Vaughn
]]>http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/07/birminghamneedsuber_responds_t.htmlOpinionOpinion - BirminghamOpinion - HuntsvilleOpinion - MobileOpinion - MontgomeryUberis-featuredMon, 21 Jul 2014 21:24:29 UTC2014-07-21T21:57:22ZNO VALUEWesley Vaughn
Last week, Edward Bowser and I visited Auburn University for their Communications & Media Career Day. We met with over 40 students from Auburn and AUM and - as an Alabama fan it pains me to say this - they were each incredibly impressive. Whether producing outreach videos for their churches, investigative journalism for the Auburn Plainsman or hype videos for...

Last week, Edward Bowser and I visited Auburn University for their Communications & Media Career Day. We met with over 40 students from Auburn and AUM and - as an Alabama fan it pains me to say this - they were each incredibly impressive. Whether producing outreach videos for their churches, investigative journalism for the Auburn Plainsman or hype videos for their football team, today's journalism students are already well-versed in multimedia news production.

In addition to sharing details about Alabama Media Group, we asked the students to share with us their plans after graduation. As a group, most plan to stay in Alabama to pursue their career - citing family, friends and familiarity as the key reasons to stay close to home. Today's college students are excited about the job market but are a little worried about the number of jobs that will be available when they graduate. That makes sense, considering these students are also worried about the future of print journalism.

As you might expect, Millennials think that more and more of our news will be consumed online and through our phones. What might surprise you, however, is that many students still read the hard copy of their papers and lament the possibility that everything may be digital someday.

If you're a current student, how do you feel about your job prospects when you graduate? Will you stay in state or look elsewhere to pursue your future?

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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/auburn_media_students_hope_to.html
John Hammontree | jhammontree@al.com
]]>http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/auburn_media_students_hope_to.htmlOpinionOpinion - BirminghamOpinion - Montgomery@river-birmingham@river-montgomeryauburn studentsjobsTue, 03 Mar 2015 17:25:00 UTC2015-03-03T19:09:26Z
Many of us who grew up in the South cannot change the past, but we cannot afford to ignore it either.

I learned about Christopher Columbus's voyages on the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. I could recount the tale of the mysterious lost colony at Roanoke. The battles of the American Revolution, the founding of America and the Civil War became second nature. Our class reviewed the World Wars and the Great Depression in detail. I even remember discussing the invention of flight and man's travel to space.

As far as the civil rights era was concerned, I learned that a man named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream of rights for black people, pushed through laws granting equality, and was assassinated. We might have also briefly discussed Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus.

Understandably, growing up in the South, discussing the civil rights movement in a predominantly white school was a challenging proposition. To put it mildly, we glossed over it. Black people got their rights, the bad people lost, and we could move on to the next chapter. The uncomfortable problem was that some of the "bad people" could have easily been some of our grandparents.

I never heard of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma. I was well into college before I ever read King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." In fact, I had very little knowledge of America's struggle for civil rights until I stumbled upon Professor Bryan Fair's class "Race, Racism and the Law" at the University of Alabama School of Law.

Professor Fair and I went round after round on any number of political topics, but he left me realizing race, perspective and history were inextricably intertwined. Sadly, my romanticized history had done a great disservice to one of the most beautiful and painful chapters in our nation's history.

I needed to see the pictures of the fire hoses, dogs and beatings. It is horrific to review, but it is also an too important to ignore. I needed to know that the racist whisperings and comments I heard from time to time from my elders were uttered at tremendous cost. The cancer of racism is not simply an outdated cultural reality but rather an evil that oppressed many Americans for generations.

AL.com Opinion

About the writerCameron Smith writes a regular column for Alabama Media Group. He is a Senior Fellow with the R Street Institute in Washington, DC. He may be reached at cameron@smithstrategies.org or on Twitter @DCameronSmith.

More importantly, the civil rights era breathed life into the founding documents I knew so well. The Declaration of Independence embodies the idea that people have the right "to alter or abolish" a government destructive of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The civil rights movement unmistakably altered our government in a fulfillment of that foundational belief. In that respect, the likes of Dr. King, Medgar Evers, and John Lewis need to be considered as modern equivalents to Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.

Many of us who grew up in the South cannot change the past, but we cannot afford to ignore it either. When we understand that "history" is far more complex than one seamless convenient narrative about the past, we can better appreciate how far we have actually come and how much it cost to make it here.

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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/the_civil_rights_history_i_mis.html
Cameron Smith
]]>http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/the_civil_rights_history_i_mis.htmlOpinionOpinion - BirminghamOpinion - GulfLiveOpinion - HuntsvilleOpinion - MobileOpinion - MontgomeryPoliticsTue, 03 Mar 2015 15:31:59 UTC2015-03-03T15:32:22ZNO VALUEThe Associated Pressduring a wreath laying ceremony at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala., Saturday, March 3, 2012. U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., usually leads the ceremony on the eve of the Bloody Sunday Selma to Montgomery march anniversary. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
And you should care because the session will be more than just dry legislative bills and page after page of mind-numbing budget numbers. It will be about what kind of government do you want and the kind of people leading it?

Today marks the opening of the 2015 legislative session.

Why should you care?

For starters, if you buy a car later this year it could cost you more if lawmakers double the sales tax on automobile purchases from two to four percent. That could happen if legislators approve a tax package Gov. Robert Bentley will push them to pass this session.

If you smoke, you could end up paying 82 cents more for a pack of cigarettes, if lawmakers approve Bentley's package. (Of course, if you continue to smoke, you could die but that's a column for another day).

On the other hand, if lawmakers don't approve Bentley's tax plans and don't find hundreds of millions of dollars needed to plug a hole in a key state budget, there could be fewer state troopers on roads to watch over you and your kids. Overcrowding in state prisons, already well over maximum capacity, will just grow worse, endangering not only the safety of inmates but also guards. It could lead to a prolonged and costly takeover by the federal government of the state's prison system.

You should care if you are among the one million Alabamians who depend on Medicaid to help you receive medical care. The program is vital to the poor and elderly all across the state.

You should care because this session will see the Legislature take up in a serious way charter school legislation that could, depending on how it is crafted, re-order public education in historic ways, some of them good and some of them not so good.

And you should care because the session will be more than just dry legislative bills and page after page of mind-numbing budget numbers. It will be about what kind of government do you want and the kind of people leading it?

Bentley, a life-long Republican who did not supported any tax increase in his eight years in the House of Representatives or his first four years as governor, is now proposing $541 million of new taxes. He maintains that the state has done all the cutting of government that it can reasonably do and that without additional dollars vital state services will go unmet.

Bentley's plan would fix an overall $700 million hole in the state's General Fund, a hole that has grown that large basically because lawmakers for years (including Bentley) have refused to confront the state's revenue needs.

A majority of Alabamians would not pay more taxes under Bentley's plan. He is not seeking to raise income taxes or property taxes. His plan strikes me as a reasonable and thoughtful way to help solve the problem.

On the other side will be lawmakers who will only want to kick the can down the road and not deal with the state's money needs. They will tell you they can cut more, and they can, but not $700 million more. They will tell you Bentley has gone too far. They will not tell you they have not gone far enough to provide you with an adequate government to meet your needs.

It will be a debate about what kind of government you want and what you are willing to pay to get it. Bentley is at least trying to solve the problem. My question for lawmakers who disagree with him is: what is your plan?

Finally there are the images of leadership that will be on display during this session. Bentley is trying to reinvent himself as a relevant governor after having spent four years being ignored and disrespected by the Legislature. He is speaking and acting boldly. Will lawmakers hear and heed him?

Then there is really something we have not seen in modern Alabama politics and government; the spectacle of Speaker Mike Hubbard, under criminal indictment and awaiting trial on charges he used his office to benefit himself, presiding over the Alabama House of Representatives.

I think Hubbard starts today standing ethically naked before House members as he slams his gavel down starting the session. Emails released Friday by prosecutors who charged him last October with felony ethics violations paint a picture of a man in conversations with key supporters as someone lacking the basic moral compass to lead a body charged with passing laws for the rest of us.

And then there are the House members themselves who overwhelmingly re-elected Hubbard speaker after his indictment, correctly pointing out at that time that an indictment is just that, an indictment, not a verdict of guilty.

But there is no getting around the emails and the voice of Hubbard himself speaking in them. His own words sadly show him as unfit to continue to lead the House.

For House Republicans and Democrats, who also supported Hubbard, to allow him to stay in the speaker's chair is a disgrace and they should be embarrassed by their complicity in allowing the speaker to retain power during a session where historic and important decisions are going to be made.

So the show begins today. I hope you pay attention to the performance.

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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/the_legislature_what_kind_of_g.html
Charles J. Dean | cdean@al.com
]]>http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/the_legislature_what_kind_of_g.htmlNewsOpinionOpinion - BirminghamOpinion - HuntsvilleOpinion - MobileOpinion - MontgomeryPolitics@connectal@river-statealabama legislature 2015gov. robert bentleyMike Hubbard indictedTue, 03 Mar 2015 12:17:00 UTC2015-03-03T12:17:42ZNO VALUECharles J. Dean | cdean@al.com
Not sure how well a Hillary/Jeb ticket would do in a real election, but they did inspire a new crop of captions. Stroll through the finalists as they appear in the gallery above, then vote for your favorites in the poll below.

AL.com Opinion

About the writerJD Crowe is the statewide cartoonist for the Alabama Media Group. His work is published in the newspaper on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and online all the time at Al.com. He can be reached at jdcrowe@al.com.

Not sure how well a Hillary/Jeb ticket would do in a real election, but they did inspire a new crop of captions. Stroll through the finalists as they appear in the gallery above, then vote for your favorites in the poll below.

Don't just ask whether Mike Hubbard should resign as Speaker of Alabama's House of Representatives.

That should be obvious. I mean the guy couldn't have his hand out any more if he was trying to hail a cab in a thunderstorm.

But it isn't just about Hubbard any more. The question now is how the hell Alabama goes on from here as if nothing has changed.

How do we look to the coming Legislative Session and pretend it is convened to solve our problems when we know from evidence and emails that the very politicians who vowed to clean up the "culture of corruption" in Montgomery depend on political clients to pay their bills - and let it affect their actions and votes? How do we take it seriously when so many of those guys with the slicked-back hair and mobster suits have been shown to be as greedy and grubbing, as venal and vile as they look.

How do we even sit through another State of the State address and not recall, when Gov. Robert Bentley talks, how the Speaker of the House wrote behind the governor's back that "his staff never knows what is going to come out of his mouth. And I don't think he does until it comes out."

Come on. How do we pretend anything this Legislature considers is untainted by the shame?

Pick a topic, and tell me how to take it seriously.

Charter Schools? Republicans have already made them a priority, on grounds that "every child in Alabama deserves access to quality education."

But now - thanks to evidence unveiled last week in the Hubbard case -- we know the Speaker of the House took $7,500 a month from a company called Edgenuity, an online educational resource company that would profit from (you guessed it) charter schools.

We know Hubbard and lobbyist Ferrell Patrick worked together on the Edgenuity payroll, and that Hubbard told Patrick he was eager to work with him for his other clients.

And we know Patrick's other clients include iTeach, another online learning program that would love to see charters in Alabama.

We know now how Hubbard groveled before Bob Riley ("You are without a doubt my mentor and role model ... I love you like a father and admire you as a son admires his father"), and of course we knew all along that Riley is in the school choice business as well.

Just keep looking. Anywhere. The Business Council of Alabama is stained by its connection to the Hubbard evidence, and the most powerful voices in Alabama - business owners, lobbyists, politicians - are touched by the mess, whether they were intentionally a part of it or not.

Alabama Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh was treasurer of the state Republican Party at a time Hubbard, according to the evidence, was directing party money to his own business.

Does that mean Marsh did anything wrong? No. Did that mean he should have known? Of course.

And then there is Mike Hubbard. He may be the same person he was last week, but he seems for all the world like someone else.

We see now how he begged for money at a time when his net worth was estimated at $8.3 million, according to the emails and documents filed by prosecutors last week. Because it is not what you have that matters, but what you have to lose.

And now we know how he moaned and groaned that he earned practically nothing from his job as Speaker of the House because all he took home was $70,000 from that part-time gig - or more than double the median household income in Alabama.

Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, left, watches as Senator Del Marsh speaks to a National School Choice Week rally at the Alabama State Capitol, Wednesday Jan. 28, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala. Parents and students rallied on the lawn of the Alabama Capitol Wednesday, urging state politicians to provide more publicly funded education options.(AP Photo/Hal Yeager)Hal Yeager

How do Alabamians see him as their top representative? How do any of us believe a damn thing these politicians say or do?

We can't, of course. Until we recognize that change in Montgomery is not about parties or politics. Change in Montgomery is about courage. And character.

Somebody needs to show it.

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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/mike_hubbard_is_toxic_now_but.html
John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com
]]>http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/mike_hubbard_is_toxic_now_but.htmlOpinionOpinion - BirminghamOpinion - GulfLiveOpinion - HuntsvilleOpinion - MobileOpinion - Montgomery@river-birmingham@river-statealabama politicsjohn archibaldmike hubbard indictedMon, 02 Mar 2015 22:46:08 UTC2015-03-02T23:26:36ZNO VALUEThe Associated PressAlabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, left, watches as Senator Del Marsh speaks to a National School Choice Week rally at the Alabama State Capitol, Wednesday Jan. 28, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala. Parents and students rallied on the lawn of the Alabama Capitol Wednesday, urging state politicians to provide more publicly funded education options.(AP Photo/Hal Yeager)NO VALUEJohn Archibald | jarchibald@al.com"No Mike," he wrote. "That's not it. I think that folks are afraid to mess up, on either their or your side of the equation." -- Will Brooke to HubbardNO VALUEJohn Archibald | jarchibald@al.com"I need to be a salesman for Bob Riley & Associates. Except for those ethics laws. Who proposed those things?! What were we thinking?"NO VALUEJohn Archibald | jarchibald@al.comNO VALUEJohn Archibald | jarchibald@al.com"It's ironic that I was the 'architect of putting a pro-business legislature in place yet businesses seem to want to avoid any personal association with me like the plague." -- Mike HubbardNO VALUEJohn Archibald | jarchibald@al.com"Now and from now on you and I are going to be suspect in everything we do," Riley wrote. "The question now is DO YOU 'WANT' to be Gov. - or - make a lot of money: good thing is you could do either but I am not sure it's possible to do both."NO VALUEJohn Archibald | jarchibald@al.com"Hubbard repeatedly used his position as ALGOP chairman to essentially embezzle over $1,012,444 in party monty to Hubbard's printing and media business," the state
The devil is in the details. In Mike Hubbard's case, it looks like the witch is in the emails.

AL.com Opinion

About the writerJD Crowe is the statewide cartoonist for the Alabama Media Group. His work is published in the newspaper on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and online all the time at Al.com. He can be reached at jdcrowe@al.com.

His email conversations with the party and business elite of Alabama are not the public pandering about the political nature of his prosecution, not the banty-rooster cockiness Hubbard displayed while standing in front of a Republican caucus he strong-armed into a show of support just after his re-election.

No, we've heard how Hubbard really feels about his inability to cash in on his role as public servant: "It's ironic that I was the architect of putting a pro-business legislature in place, yet business seem to want to avoid any personal association with me like the plague."

This is not about what faction runs the Alabama GOP. It's not a conservative versus liberal thing. It's about ethics. About conscience. About expecting more from the people who speak for us.

On one of worst days of my life, the day I was fired from The Birmingham News almost three years ago, Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard called me.

There was no small talk. Hubbard isn't good at small talk. After expressing his shock at the firing he asked me simply if there was anything he could do to help me.

I detected no pretense on his part or the working of some angle for his benefit. I was suddenly an unemployed guy in his 50's with few prospects and nothing to offer the most powerful politician in the state. And to boot, my political philosophy and outlook could not be more different from Hubbard's.

Hubbard knew all that. And he still called. I've remembered the kindness of that call.

Five months later, re-employed, I wrote the first story reporting what appeared to be questionable financial dealings revolving around a tangled web of campaign dollars that Hubbard as chairman of the Alabama Republican Party in 2010 had bundled together from legislative candidates he was backing. Hubbard essentially directed lucrative campaign business to a Florida political consulting company. That company handed over printing of campaign brochures and other materials for Alabama GOP candidates supported by Hubbard to an Auburn printing company Hubbard owns.

The story caught the attention of Matt Hart, a former federal prosecutor hired by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange to pursue public corruption. Many stories by other reporters later and Hart's investigation resulted in a 23 court indictment handed down in October 2014 charging Hubbard with felony ethics law violations and using his office for person gain. He goes to trial this October.

There are those in the new media world who have been paid to hate Hubbard and dig dirt on him. There are also new media on the other side that get paid to ignore the questionable ethics and behavior of politicians as long as those politicians carry the water of usually big business, low tax, and anti-environment interest.

I'm not a Mike Hubbard hater. Nor I'm I a lackey who ignores his questionable lapses of actions and judgments that caused Hart to enter his world and eventually charge him with criminal wrongdoing.

A jury this fall will determine if Hubbard broke the law. But I do not need the determination of a Lee County jury to tell me that Hubbard has broken the trust of members of the House of Representatives and, more importantly, the trust of Alabamians.

And I do not need a jury to tell me that the time has come for Hubbard to surrender the gravel of the office of speaker and step aside.

One cannot read the stunning series of emails between Hubbard and various powerful and influential individuals - including a former governor of Alabama - and not conclude that Hubbard is not fit to wield the speaker's gavel.

The emails were filed in Lee County by prosecutors who believe they show a man who acted repeatedly in violations of the state's ethics law in an attempt to use his office to make money.

But I don't care about that right now. The jury will sort out if the law was broken. But there is no doubt after wading through those emails that Hubbard lacks the moral and ethical compass to lead the Alabama House.

Time and again the emails show a man who has lost his way ethically. They show a man seeking to trade on his office and its influence for jobs and money. They show a man who helped pass in 2010 a tougher ethics law later lament what he did and in fact cynically scoff at that new law.

And most importantly it shows a man who cannot be trusted to put the interest of the people ahead of his own.

And Hubbard cannot claim that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong, that he could not pursue political power - his well-known ambition to governor -- and dollars at the same time. The man who warned him was once his mentor: Gov. Bob Riley.

"The question now is DO YOU 'WANT' to be Gov. - or - make a lot of money: good thing is you could do either but I am not sure it's possible to do both." Riley wrote Hubbard in a returned email.

Hubbard should have heeded the warning and chosen one or the other. Instead he pursued both.

The irony is that he now stands to lose both.

Mr. Speaker, you are an emperor with no clothes. You stand exposed, condemned by your own words, your own actions and your own poor judgment.

It's time to surrender the gavel.

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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/speaker_mike_hubbard_an_empero.html
Charles J. Dean | cdean@al.com
]]>http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/speaker_mike_hubbard_an_empero.htmlNewsOpinionOpinion - BirminghamOpinion - HuntsvilleOpinion - MobileOpinion - MontgomeryPolitics@connectAL@river-montgomery@river-statemike hubbard indictedMon, 02 Mar 2015 12:17:00 UTC2015-03-02T12:17:03ZNO VALUEMike Cason | mcason@al.comAlabama Rep. Mike Hubbard of Auburn, slams down a gavel after he is re-elected speaker of the House during the Alabama Legislature organizational session, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015, in Montgomery, Ala. Hubbard was indicted by a grand jury in October 2014 on 23 charges accusing him of misusing his office as speaker and his previous post as chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Let's say you have an extra $1.5 million in your back pocket and you're thinking of investing in real estate. You look around the country and narrow it down to Colorado, West Virginia and Alabama.

Let's say you have an extra $1.5 million in your back pocket and you're thinking of investing in real estate. You look around the country and narrow your choices down to Colorado, West Virginia and Alabama.

The Colorado property in question was three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a small guest cabin - about 3,000 square feet overall - on 45 scenic acres. The price per square foot was $354. In West Virginia, you can get a 2,400 cottage with three bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths on the edge of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests.

Its cost is $438 per square foot.

Alabama's offering is in the Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook and is a 10,000 contemporary home with five bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths, complete. It's on a three-and-a- half-acre lot and has a swimming pool and tennis court. The cost per square foot is $104.

It's Monday, start of another week. Let's look around and see what's happening:

Thoughts on evolution

How was man created? It's literally an age-old question.

A recent study showed about two-thirds of Americans said that humans and other living things have evolved over, either through a process of natural selection (37 percent) or being through the guidance of a supreme being (24 percent.) The poll, conducted by Pew Research, showed 31 percent said human and other life forms have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.

The rule doesn't apply to the flag pole or other equipment used to hang the banners.

It's Women's History Month

You may not be aware but it's Women's History Month. International Business Times recently shared some interesting info, such as there are a record number of females in chief executive positions and more women than ever in elected federal offices. And in the terms of numbers, there are 161 million females in the U.S. compared to 156.1 men. And, we outnumber men 2 to 1 at age 85 and older.

It turns out the sun is actually green. A greenish/blue star to be exact.

AL.com news partner WHNT has the technical reasoning for why we see a green sun as yellow but for us regular folks it has to do with the relationship between the temperature of an object and the peak wavelength of the light it emits. The sun doesn't look green to us because it emits lights at various wavelengths that our eyes blend together to create a whitish light.

Our perception of the sun's color can also be impacted by the Earth's atmosphere. When rising and setting, the light has to travel through more atmosphere, thus only the longest wavelengths of light (reddish-orange colors) are seen, WHNT explained.

Whatever color it is, I'm just glad to see the sun this weekend. Enough of the snow already.

Let's see what else is going on in this morning's Wake Up Call.

Lt. Gov. facts you may not know

Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey recently shared five facts you may not know about her office. Some of them aren't that surprising- such as the Lt. Governor serves as the Senate tiebreaker - but this one caught my eye: Alabama didn't always have a Lt. Governor.

Alabama became a state in 1819 but the Lt. Governor's office wasn't established until 1869 during Reconstruction. The office was temporarily abolished during the late 1800s but was reestablished in 1901.

To this day, the Lieutenant Governor is designated to become governor in the event that the governor leaves office or is unable to fulfill the duties, which has happened twice in modern history.

Here's a quiz - let me know what those two times were in the comments below. I'll have the answer tomorrow.

The Senate and House have been tied up over controversy surrounding the bill, with many Republicans pushing for the bill to turn back President Obama's plans to allow as many as 5 million immigrants in the country illegally to remain in the U.S.

One of the high ticket items is an increase on cigarette taxes. The state currently taxes cigarettes at 42.5 cents per pack; Bentley's plan would increase that to $1.25 per pack. That increase would produce about $205 million annually.

President threatens veto

The president is threatening to veto a bipartisan bill that would give Congress more control over any future nuclear arms agreements with Iran. The White House said Congressional action at this point could endanger any agreements with Iran over its nuclear weapons programs.

Lawmakers are pushing for a measure that would require Obama to submit a text of an agreement with Iran to Congress for approval and prohibit any agreements while it debates the proposal.

Until tomorrow.

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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/forget_that_dress_the_real_que.html
Leada Gore | lgore@al.com
]]>http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/03/forget_that_dress_the_real_que.htmlNewsNews - BirminghamNews - East AlabamaNews - HuntsvilleNews - MobileNews - MontgomeryNews - TuscaloosaOpinionOpinion - BirminghamOpinion - HuntsvilleOpinion - MobileOpinion - Montgomery@mobile@river-statewake up callSun, 01 Mar 2015 12:39:56 UTC2015-03-01T13:06:59ZNO VALUELeada Gore | lgore@al.comThe bright sun, a portion of the International Space Station and Earth's horizon are featured in this image photographed during the STS-134 mission's fourth spacewalk. (Contributed photo/NASA)
AL.com Opinion About the writer Edward Bowser is a community engagement specialist for the Alabama Media Group. He can be reached at ebowser@al.com. Read more See more by Edward More opinion on AL.com Today, Venkata Macha helped me think about my city differently. Years before his TEDxBirmingham talk at UAB's Alys Stephens Center, Venkata simply asked himself a question -...

AL.com Opinion

About the writerEdward Bowser is a community engagement specialist for the Alabama Media Group. He can be reached at ebowser@al.com.

To get his answer, Venkata, now a high school senior in Montgomery, simply emailed researchers across the country, in hopes that he could find a mentor and conduct research.

He said his mom was terrified, thinking he was biting off more than he could chew. His dad was simply amused by his son's gumption.

But eventually, Venkata found a scientist who saw his potential. And the pair were ready to get to work.

Simply put, Venkata had a vision and he refused to let his age or lack of experience block it.

He moved those mountains through sheer perseverance.

Venkata joined 11 other speakers for the annual TEDxBirmingham conference at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, exchanging ideas and empowering attendees through personal stories. Last year's event, with a theme "Rediscoveirng the Magic," was met with mixed reviews. Some critics thought the event was too exclusive, calling it a rallying session for the Over The Mountain crowd.

That's a bit of a stretch. Besides, I was there, and I'm about as far removed from the Over The Mountain crowd as you can get.

Regardless, while last year's event celebrated Birmingham's journey, this year's event was about knocking down the stumbling blocks that impede our path.

Twelve speakers spoke on the theme "Move Mountains," urging all of us to shake up this city.

Sometimes, that action is triggered by personal tragedy. Sunny Slaughter told the heart-wrenching story of her 7-year-old daughter being raped by her husband. She was blind to the evil that resided in her own home. "Everything I thought I believed about myself was about to be tested," she said.

Slaughter's no longer silent - she's now a national consultant for several task forces that fight human trafficking. She also adept at using social media - a tool often used to bait so many of our children - to safeguard them.

She's bulldozing those mountains of fear and exploitation.

HIV/AIDS researcher Mike Saag said the U.S. health care system can be summed up in two words, "deadly chaos." He noted that the success of AIDS research has advanced it from a guaranteed death sentence to an illness that can now be managed. He said those advances were the result of three things - awareness, organization and passion. When today's medical messages are dumbed down to 30 second sound bites (remember last year's Ebola scare?), symptoms outweigh cures.

In the 80s, AIDS seemed to be an impenetrable mountain, until the heath care community chipped away at it. That type of progress won't be seen across the board until Americans demand it.

Civil-rights icon Shelley Stewart and children's advocate Liz Huntley rebounded from broken homes, moving the mountain of adversity. Quang Do, a native of Vietnam, felt like an outsider on our shores, until he found his voice through spoken-word poetry. His pen and passion leveled his mountain. Kacy Catanzaro became the first woman to qualify for the finals of the TV sports challenge American Ninja Warrior by scaling the curved "warped wall" obstacle. She didn't just move her mountain, she literally jumped over it.

There are lessons that can be applied right here, right now in Birmingham.

Our troubles seem insurmountable. But the TEDx 12 prove that even that tallest mountains can fall.

It will take a community with the audacity to challenge the status quo and not accept the misfortunes we've been dealt.

It's the type of audacity that makes a high school kid like Venkata think he can help cure cancer.

No, TEDxBirmingham didn't map out a step-by-step game plan to solve our problems. That's not its role - by definition, TED is about "ideas worth spreading." Instead, we've been given encouragement that even the largest problems can be toppled when faced with determination and ingenuity.

If 12 folks from TEDx can crumble their mountains, imagine what 200,000 Birmingham residents can do.

Those mountains are no match for us.

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http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/02/what_does_it_take_to_move_moun.html
Edward T. Bowser | ebowser@al.com
]]>http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/02/what_does_it_take_to_move_moun.htmlOpinionOpinion - Birmingham@river-birminghamedward bowserSun, 01 Mar 2015 00:35:52 UTC2015-03-01T05:31:17ZNO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comTEDxBirmingham -- a local non-profit dedicated to finding and spreading positive ideas
about the Magic City -- held its second annual major conference at the Alys Stephens Center
(ASC) on The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) campus on Sat., Feb. 28, 2015. Attendees in the lobby. (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comAndrew Billings, a professor of sports media at The University of Alabama, speaks at TEDxBirmingham 2015.
(Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comBirmingham comic Chris Davis made a surprise appearance at the close of the TEDxBirmingham
2015 conference at the Alys Stephens Center. (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comLunch is served at the TEDxBirmingham 2015 conference (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comTEDxBirmingham co-organizer Matthew Hamilton prior to the morning session (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comMichael Saag, noted HIV/AIDS researcher at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, was one
of the speakers at the TEDxBirmingham 2015 conference. (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)
NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comRegistration at the TEDxBirmingham 2015 conference at the Alys Stephens Center.
(Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comTEDxBirmingham co-organizer Sarah Parcak (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comTEDxBirmingham speaker Sunny Slaughter, who works to stop human trafficking. (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comTEDxBirmingham speaker Liz Huntley, a Birmingham attorney and children's advocate. (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)NO VALUEJesse Chambers | jchambers@al.comTEDxBirmingham speakers Sunny Slaughter (L), who works to stop human trafficking, and athlete
Kacy Catanzaro (Jesse Chambers/jchambers@al.com)
As part of the city's Black History Month celebration, several groups around Birmingham have been meeting to discuss Tanner Colby's Some of My Best Friends are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America. Colby attended Vestavia Hills High School and, in the opening chapters of his book, discusses Birmingham's white flight in the 1960s and the birth of the...

As part of the city's Black History Month celebration, several groups around Birmingham have been meeting to discuss Tanner Colby's Some of My Best Friends are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America. Colby attended Vestavia Hills High School and, in the opening chapters of his book, discusses Birmingham's white flight in the 1960s and the birth of the "Over the Mountain" communities.

To join in the discussion, I invited my colleague Edward Bowser to read through the first three chapters with me and discuss any thoughts or revelations that stemmed from the reading.

John Hammontree: So, Edward, as someone that grew up in Birmingham and attended Mountain Brook High School - I've found the first few chapters of Some of My Best Friends are Black, equal parts fascinating and frustrating. I'd had my suspicions about when and why the Over the Mountain school systems were developed (it's not a random occurrence that each of the high schools opened in the 1960s), but it's still shocking to see how shortsighted some of Birmingham's residents were during segregation.

I don't know if it were based on fear or rebellion or what, but it's disappointing that white residents abandoned beautiful schools like Woodlawn and Ramsay to flee to the county system. It's not like it was better for the white students. At the time, students outnumbered teachers 40 to 1, the type of ratio that parents would be appalled by now. It wasn't until they built their own school districts, that the flight to Vestavia Hills even began to make sense. But they still didn't escape the dreaded "Integration." They just crippled it.

What do you think? What stuck out to you about the first three chapters?

Edward Bowser: What struck me most deeply is how the effects of that white flight still cripple communities today - both Over the Mountain and in my neck of the woods as well. To escape integration, families withdrew themselves into their self-erected silos, dwelling among like minds instead of embracing their increasingly diverse community. Even in 2015, in today's so-called post-racial America, those silos still cast shadows over our communities.

That's not to say Birmingham hasn't made boundless progress in 50 years. Of course we have - it's our legacy. But the division still exists.

And we can't lay that division solely at the feet of white communities. Some African-Americans are more comfortable dwelling in silos of their own, pointing out racial divides instead of helping to eradicate them. There's work to do on both sides - Tanner's research simply highlights the origins of the pains that ache us today.

John Hammontree: Yeah, I agree with that - but the knee jerk reaction to integration is that "white folks and black folks don't want to go to the same schools/churches/restaurants/concerts/etc." Which, I don't think is necessarily true. No one wants their kids to be the only white or black kids in their schools, but the bigger issue is... when we reach a critical number of minority students in a white school, how are those kids treated?

I think it's fascinating (and sad) that the Honors/Regular/Remedial track system for schools was created, in part, to continue segregation. Black students, by default, were put in the remedial track, regardless of how smart or accomplished they actually were.

Now, I don't think that's necessarily how it works today, but obviously the legacy persists. If you teach young black kids that they are somehow less intelligent just because of the color their skin, then that's going to affect their senses of self-worth, their work ethic and their motivation to go to school. White kids need to make an effort to get to know their black peers, beyond trying to touch their hair to see how it feels.

If I were in an all-black school and every child stared at me during White History Month and I was placed in remedial classes for being white, I'm sure I would beg my parents to let me stay home and would want to drop out.

The whole thing kind of shatters the myth that "black kids struggle in school because of a weak family unit." What do you think? Am I jumping to conclusions too much here?

What was your school situation like growing up?

Edward Bowser: Well, blaming the ills of the black community on "weak family units" is a flimsy cop-out anyway. As with most problems, including those we still face with education, the sources are much deeper. Maybe even a little deeper than the examples you share.

Sure, there's a legacy of segregation that shortchanges minority students in majority white schools. But let's look at the other side of this.

From grade school to graduation, I attended majority black schools in my home state of Virginia. Most of my classes contained just a handful of white students. I lucky enough to call many of them friends: We shared interests - from video games to those awesome 90s X-Men cartoons - and we embraced our cultural differences.

But sadly, those experiences weren't always the norm for them. Some of those white students - the minority in my school - were shunned by black students - the majority - simply because of those cultural differences. It was a disgusting role reversal of some of the themes in Tanner's book. Even back in the fourth grade I knew what I was witnessing was wrong.

Those white students I shared classes with sometimes underperformed for the very same reasons you highlighted for struggling minority students. They felt isolated and unwanted. Their self-worth was shattered. And their grades suffered.

Whether the "minority students" in schools are black, white or are of another cultural descent, the key to their success is acceptance. And that's only achieved when we open ourselves up and learn about worlds different from our own. That's why it's important for Black History Month to not just be observed by African American students. And that's why those same African-American students must learn and grow alongside their white peers as well. The true evils of segregation silence the conversations that provide the growth both sides so sorely need.

That's brought out the big guns - pun intended - of the National Rifle Association, which is recruiting legislators to help fight the measure to ban 5.56mm/.223-caliber ammunition. NRA said the move is a regulatory effort to "basically ban America's most popular sporting rifle."

"While this ATF initiative doesn't appear to affect traditional ammunition, the proposed ban has potentially far-reaching implications for shooting, hunting and outdoor enthusiasts. We encourage our customers to get informed and express their opinions to the ATF and their elected representatives," the company said on its website.

Sounds like NRA and others are ready to scrap on this one.

Welcome to Saturday's Wake-Up Call. We looked at a battle over guns above. What else is going on?

First, let's get the obvious out of the way

Have you read this? AL.com's John Archibald shared a wealth of emails from Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard detailing financial struggles and business issues. The documents were released by special prosecutors investigating Hubbard, who has been indicted on 23 felony counts of using his office for personal gain.

Obama's 50 shades of gray

Don't get too excited. It's nothing salacious. Instead, Vox recently produced a chart - and a cool dual-image photo - that lets you see how fast President Obama is aging. It turns out that being the leader of the free world can give you a few gray hairs.

It sounds gross to me but they are now available at some stores in Japan. This isn't the first time Kit-Kat makers Nestle have rolled out some unusual versions of the chocolate candy bar. Other Japanese flavors have included Sakura Green Tea Kit Kats (made with green tea, white chocolate and edible cherry-blossom leaves), Strawberry Cheesecake and Wasabi.

Set in the distant future, Star Trek indirectly addressed many of the political and cultural issues of the 1960s. Topics from the Vietnam War to race relations were explored, masked only by futuristic pajamas and alien makeup.

Here are five quotes from Mr. Spock worth perfectly applicable to our current political situations:

"An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains - however improbable - must be the truth." Spock was actually quoting Sherlock Holmes, but his words make plenty of sense in today's political arena. Politics is indeed the art of the possible. The only problem is that so often our politicians let the impossible, or exceedingly improbable, become the focal point of their political efforts.

"Insufficient facts always invite danger, Captain." Spock's wisdom speaks directly to a modern political conundrum. So often our political leaders are making critical decisions about matters where the facts are often in dispute. We need to focus more of our resources on finding out the facts about the problems we face rather than developing policies based on faulty assumptions.

"Without followers, evil cannot spread." Often lost in discussions about terrorists groups like ISIS is the reality that they are only as powerful as the public appeal that they are able to create and followers they are able to attract. More importantly, we need to make sure that the politicians and policies to which we lend our support have the moral quality we expect of ourselves.

"Jim... the statistical likelihood that our plan will succeed is less than 4.3%. " From time to time, our political leaders need to be realists about their plans and tactics. Modern politics is in desperate need of a reality check, and Mr. Spock repeatedly reminded viewers that at little rational thought could go a long way.

"Live long and prosper." While Spock's sentiment may not be how we feel about many politicians, it certainly would help if it were a view we had toward each other. Political issues are tough and often divisive. If we maintain a positive perspective on our neighbors who might disagree with us, we can really change for the better.

AL.com Opinion

About the writerJD Crowe is the statewide cartoonist for the Alabama Media Group. His work is published in the newspaper on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and online all the time at Al.com. He can be reached at jdcrowe@al.com.

Many are calling for Cooper's job and decrying Gov. Bentley's hardball politics as an attack on Holtzclaw's First Amendment rights. Some even say North Alabama should just keep the tax money and secede.

Sounds a lot like Chris Christie's Bridgegate, and there is little doubt this will go badly for the ALDOT director and the governor. Bentley had a responsibility to say no -- you absolutely will not engage in this kind of sleazy political payback. So this is a scandal.

That said, it's incredible how everyone wants great roads and nobody wants to pay for them. Gas taxes haven't gone up in years, and as vehicles become more fuel efficient, gas tax revenues actually have gone down. No tolls, no taxes... will someone explain how to pay for road projects without more revenue? Maybe the state senator who put up the sign can do it. He certainly must have a plan.

So, how is expressing a sentiment on a billboard dramatically different from expressing the same sentiment (1) on a political sign, (2) in a TV/Radio/Newspaper interview, (3) in a mail out to every constituent?

Mr. Cooper, do your job. It doesn't require you to provide or take away political favors. Also, The message was not aimed at you and (on the billboard) your name was name was NOT mentioned, implied, inferred, etc..

Young Bill crossed the line with the billboard. It will be interested whether the leaders in the State House will punish Holtzclaw by rejecting any bill he brings up and/or resign him to do nothing committee. His once bright career may be over. As usually the Republican Party will support another candidate with money.

Perhaps Holtzclaw will have learned the meaning of the saying 'discretion is the better part of valor' from this debacle of his creation. What a boneheaded move to so rashly and publicly go against the Governor who belongs to his own party even.

"it's very difficult to say that one project is needed more than another."

Another lie.... How many lies are in this one story? Is this dude a moron?

Some other ALDOT employee - "Well that bridge over there looks like it might not fall down for about 10 more years but this one over here's got about a year left."

Cooper - "Yeah, but that one over there is closer to those folks who supported the tax increase... Lets rebuild it..."

Roads are not a luxury and they age. They also have varying levels of importance. And that importance is studied by very smart and intelligent civil engineers. I'm pretty sure its easy to prioritize based on need.

That one statement shows that this is the wrong man to be running ALDOT.

Mr. Luther Strange...sounds like your office needs to look into this matter....it will be on national news tomorrow night as the comedy piece of the evening......the good ole boy network....rolling eyes